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Windscreens, the interesting story of your (in)visible but essential companion…

Windscreens are amongst us as early as 1904, but consisted of merely two sheets of window pane glass put together. It was only in the 30’s that automakers started making laminated glass, by adding a thin layer of polyvinyl butyral (PVB) between two layers of glass. The principle of adding a coating at/between layers of glass was accidently invented by French artist and chemist Edouard Benedictus. He dropped his cellulose coated beaker and was surprised the broken glass had kept its shape…

Also, since the ‘30s, car manufacturers used tempered or toughened glass by thermal treatment on the side and back windows. They are easy to shatter or break in case the car is submerged or a child in the car has to be rescued. Nowadays, the risk of being thrown out of a car is considered greater, and laminated glass is now increasingly adopted throughout the vehicle.

A major breakthrough in the high-quality flat glass production happened between 1953 and 1957, with the invention of float glass process, a revolutionary method of by floating molten glass over a bath of molten tin, avoiding the costly need to grind and polish plate glass to make it clear.

Did you know that today, car windows play an increasing role in the safety and structural rigidity (up to 60 %!) of the car?

The arrival of the supersmart glass…by AGC 

In these times of ever more energy efficient cars, keeping a pleasant cabin temperature in today’s more extreme outside temperatures is important. As we know, AGC tapped into its broad experience with coatings to solve this problem. The Technovation Centre developed a so called HeatControl windshield, coated with a multifunctional triple silver coating. It lets in the light but reflects the infrared solar rays (heat). And thanks to its conductive properties, the coating can heat the full surface of the glass in just a few minutes without any visible wires…